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Project Management MethodologiesExamples

Project Management Methodologies Examples abound. Here are just a few and a review of the top five.

Pmbok A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) was first published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the USA as a white paper in 1987 in an attempt to document and standardize generally accepted project management information and practices.

The first edition was published in 1996 followed by the second edition in 2000.

In 2004 the PMBOK® Guide - Third Edition was published with major changes from the first edition.

Prince 2 PRojects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE) is a project management method. It covers the management, control and organisation of a project. "PRINCE2" refers to the second major version of this method and is a registered trademark of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), an independent office of HM Treasury of the United Kingdom.

PRINCE2 is derived from an earlier method called PROMPTII, and from PRINCE project management method, which was initially developed in 1989 by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) as a UK Government standard for information systems (IT) project management; however, it soon became regularly applied outside the purely IT environment.

PRINCE2 was released in 1996 as a generic project management method. PRINCE2 has become increasingly popular and is now a de facto standard for project management in the UK. Its use has spread beyond the UK to more than 50 other countries.

The most current revision was released in 2009 as part of the Prince2:2009 refresh project by the Office of Government Commerce. See a Prince 2 Video!

MPMM MPMM is a popular proprietary project management methodology example (over 75,000 users) which closely aligns with the Pmbok and to a lesser degree Prince 2 - its strength lies in the software that supports the methodology, with detailed descriptions of every activity, templates and examples and the ability customize the methodology to suit the organization and integrate with other methodologies.

Although, this is largely compliant with Pmbok and Prince 2 it is fair to say that it comprises a distinct and popular methodology in its own right. MPMM a customizable Methodology

Agile Whereas all of the above methodologies concentrate largely but not entirely on a sequential waterfall approach - Agile project management methodologies examples of which are DSDM and SCRUM, etc., are designed to be more iterative. A need most often felt in software design and the development of some e-services.

They still follow a tight discipline but iterations are accepted, encouraged and controlled to ensure that what is built is not based solely on initial planning but rather on continuous testing and feedback from users.

This prototyping approach can be used to develop core systems more rapidly and are more appropriate to situations where the precise nature of the project build is unclear in the first instance and will benefit from a number of trial and error iterations.

PIAB In a similar vein to MPMM is Project in a Box PIAB However, this customizable methodology is very tightly aligned with Prince 2 and is thus less a methodology in its own right than a presentation tool for methodologies.

Again a very popular software package (over 50,000 users) PIAB enables the implementation of Prince 2 but has the added advantage of providing other methodologies already built in if required, e.g. methodologies for rapid applications development like DSDM, Managing Successful Programs MSP (also from the same stable - the Office of Government Commerce in the UK)

The Project Management Methodologies Examples shown above only represent the 'tip of the iceberg' but are representative of the key methodologies in use around the world today - either as the basis for an organization's in house development or in house software or as in the case of MPMM and PIAB 'potted and customizable' software solutions for project management offices PMOs - large and small. There are also many derivatives of these basic models for specific industries, e.g. construction.